Senior Cloud Engineer

Early Warning (Zelle); San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Early Warning is seeking a Senior Engineer - Cloud Engineering to advance our cloud journey, migrating critical apps and data from on-premise to AWS. You will design scalable, secure infrastructures and lead cross-functional collaboration for high availability and cost efficiency.

The role requires deep AWS/Kubernetes expertise, strong DevOps practices, and experience with security/compliance controls. Expect a hybrid work model with multiple major U.S. hubs and on-call responsibilities.

Qualifications

• Education/experience typically a bachelor's in CS or related field.
• At least 7 years in Cloud Engineering or DevOps roles, with 3+ years of hands-on experience in AWS.
• Strong expertise in AWS core services (EC2, EKS, Lambda, RDS, S3, IAM) and Kubernetes (EKS).
• Hands-on Docker experience.
• Experience delivering business-critical systems to the market.
• Knowledge of CI/CD, secure coding, and Agile/Lean methodologies.
• Experience with PCI-DSS, SOC2, FFIEC security/compliance controls.
• Infrastructure as Code with Terraform.
• Observability at scale (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, Splunk).
• Ability to document clearly and communicate well.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and optimize scalable, secure cloud infrastructure on AWS.
• Troubleshoot complex multi-layer infra issues and participate in 24/7 on-call rotation.
• Collaborate with Security/Compliance and audit teams; provide evidence for audits.
• Implement disaster recovery, high availability, and fault tolerance.
• Develop and maintain IaC with Terraform and CI/CD pipelines.
• Maintain observability with logging and alerting solutions.
• Create technical documentation for cloud infrastructure and procedures.
• Support risk management and protect data confidentiality.

Skills

Cloud engineering

DevOps

CI/CD

Agile/Scrum

Documentation

Communication

Team collaboration

Security awareness

Troubleshooting

On-call experience

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or related field

Tools

AWS

Kubernetes

Docker

Terraform

Linux

Prometheus

Grafana

ELK

Splunk

AppDynamics

Job description

At Early Warning, we've powered and protected the U.S. financial system for over thirty years with cutting-edge solutions like Zelle®, Paze℠, and so much more. As a trusted name in payments, we partner with thousands of institutions to increase access to financial services and protect transactions for hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses.

Positions located in Scottsdale, San Francisco, Chicago, or New York follow a hybrid work model to allow for a more collaborative working environment.

Candidates responding to this posting must independently possess the eligibility to work in the United States, for any employer, at the date of hire. This position is ineligible for employment Visa sponsorship.

Overall Purpose

The Senior Engineer- Cloud Engineering plays a vital role in Early Warning's design, implementation, and optimization of scalable, secure and cost-effective infrastructure. The role works closely with cross‑functional teams and our engineering partners to deliver high‑performance cloud native solutions as we complete our multi‑year cloud journey migrating mission critical application and their data from on‑premise to AWS.

Essential Functions

• Implements and optimizes cloud-native solutions using AWS services such as EC2, Lambda, S3, RDS, EKS, and more and with a keen focus on cost management and optimization.
• Troubleshoots complex infrastructure problems, often spanning multiple layers of the stack and requiring collaboration across teams. Conducts root cause analyses for incidents and participates in the team's 24/7 on‑call rotation.
• Works with Security and Compliance teams to ensure cloud environments meet regulatory requirements (e.g., PCI‑DS, SOC2, FFIEC) and supports internal and external audit reviews collecting evidence and responding to audit requests in a timely manner.
• Implements disaster recovery plans ensuring that our systems are highly available, fault‑tolerant, and able to recover from failure.
• Implements and maintains cloud security best practices including IAM policies, VPC design, encryption and key management (KMS).
• Contributes to the adoption and implementation of Infrastructure as code (IAC) using Terraform and leveraging CI/CD best practices.
• Supports the cloud vulnerability management and configuration program ensuring patching meets our Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
• Creates and maintains comprehensive technical documentation of cloud infrastructure, policies, and procedures.
• Implements cloud infrastructure for robustness, security, and observability, including logging and alerting solutions (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, Splunk).
• Provides technical expertise in support of building a technical plan and backlog of stories, then follows through on execution of the design and build process through to production delivery.
• Supports the company's commitment to risk management and protect the integrity and confidentiality of systems and data.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education and/or experience typically obtained through a bachelor's degree in computer science or a related technical field.
• At least 7 years in Cloud Engineering or DevOps roles, with 3+ years of hands‑on experience in AWS.
• Strong expertise in AWS core services (EC2, EKS, Lambda, RDS, S3, IAM) and strong knowledge of Kubernetes (EKS) and Linux environments.
• Hands‑on Docker experience.
• Experience in delivering business‑critical systems to the market.
• Ability to work in a collaborative team environment.
• Knowledge of mature engineering practices (CI/CD, testing, secure coding, etc.), plus software development methodologies (Agile, Scrum, LEAN) and DevOps practices.
• Experience implementing security & compliance controls aligned with frameworks like PCI‑DS, SOC2, or FFIEC.
• Experience maintaining Infrastructure as Code with Terraform.
• Experience in implementing observability at scale for complex transactional systems.
• High level of customer responsiveness, excellent documentation and communication skills, attention to detail, clear understanding of how to prioritize work and deal with ambiguity.
• Current AWS (and/or other cloud-based) certification(s).
• Background and drug screen required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree in Computer Science, Management Information Systems, or related field.
• Experience with monitoring and alerting systems (AppDynamics) and container security solutions (e.g., Twistlock, Aqua Security).
• Experience with other languages (C#, Ruby, Python).
• Knowledge of ACH/EFT and real‑time payment networks (RTP, FedNow).
• Experience in FinTech, banking, or other highly regulated industries.

Physical Requirements

Working conditions consist of a normal office environment. Work is primarily sedentary and requires extensive use of a computer and involves sitting for periods of approximately four hours. Work may require occasional standing, walking, kneeling, and reaching. Must be able to lift 10 pounds occasionally and/or negligible amount of forc